First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold” Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Sunday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of First Merchants from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of First Merchants from $49.00 to $48.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of First Merchants from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Stephens reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $46.00 target price on shares of First Merchants in a research note on Monday, September 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered shares of First Merchants from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, September 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $48.00.

First Merchants Trading Down 3.0%

NASDAQ:FRME opened at $36.18 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $39.39 and its 200-day moving average is $38.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a quick ratio of 0.90 and a current ratio of 0.90. First Merchants has a 52 week low of $33.13 and a 52 week high of $46.13. The firm has a market cap of $2.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.37 and a beta of 1.05.

First Merchants (NASDAQ:FRME) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The bank reported $0.98 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.04. First Merchants had a net margin of 21.35% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The company had revenue of $170.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.13 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.68 EPS. Equities analysts expect that First Merchants will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

First Merchants Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 5th were paid a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 5th. First Merchants’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.31%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FRME. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of First Merchants by 10,900.5% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 21,231 shares of the bank’s stock valued at $859,000 after purchasing an additional 21,038 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 1st quarter worth approximately $658,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 41,288 shares of the bank’s stock worth $1,670,000 after acquiring an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc lifted its holdings in shares of First Merchants by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 7,335 shares of the bank’s stock worth $297,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of First Merchants in the 1st quarter worth approximately $46,000. 73.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

First Merchants Company Profile

First Merchants Corporation operates as the financial holding company for First Merchants Bank that provides community banking services. The company offers a range of financial services, including time, savings, and demand deposits; and consumer, commercial, agri-business, public finance, and real estate mortgage loans.